Plan to re-enter Pike River mine announced

This announcement is just being made:

PIKE RIVER: They're going in. @craigmcculloch says Feb is expected date of re-entry. "The Minister says it's the simplest, safest plan using the existing access tunnel… method will be made safe using controls in line with mining standards…" https://t.co/wnSrsCY7jP

67 Comments

Corky

”But I really wonder whether this is a sensible thing to do. And I wonder what will be achieved, apart from perhaps the removal of some or all remains.”

Closure for those families who wanted a reentry. A slap in the face for National should bodies be found. And closure in a larger sense…the mined can be sealed. Pike River can then rest in peace and become part of our history.

Gezza

It’s a massive waste of taxpayers’ money. If there are any remains they will be reburied or re-cremated. My understanding is that not all the families have demanded this. They are long dead in a sad, disastrous, mine that was poorly managed and overseen by everybody from the DoL to Management to the miners themselves. I don’t want to sound cruel but I think the fixation some families have had on re-entering this tomb – in some ways a fitting one perhaps – only to put anything that’s left – which is NOT their men – straight back into some other cold, dark ground, I think is not only foolish but in some cases probably provoked by anger at the universe.

All that said – Labour & Andy Little have their reputation & integrity riding on this one, and having gone this far, I won’t be objecting any further to re-entering the mine. I look forward to Winston being the first one in, as he said, and I expect it will reopen more old wounds than it will heal. 😦

artcroft

Well said. I think most NZer’s think this way. If costs and delays rise then Labour will have a job to justify this nonsense to the taxpayer. Even if they bring the men out and immediately rebury them, a lot of people are going to ask, wtf?

Corky

”Closure is the end or the closing down of something. It can be physical — like the closure of your local library — or emotional, like the closure you experience when you finally come to terms with the end of a romance. Closure comes from the Latin claus (“shut”), and it has many different shades of meaning.”

The problem is, Arty..you don’t have emotional capital invested in this situation. Therefore it’s very easy to make a dispassionate judgement call.

While your comments make absolute sense, my opinion is shaped from the emotional perspective.

lurcher1948

High Flying Duck

Labour wanted a new flag…until National proposed it. Then they didn’t any more and worked hard to taint the process:

Sep 03 2014

“Labour would also review the design of the New Zealand flag, with the party saying “the time has come for a change and it is right for the issue to be put to the public”.

“We would however support the ability of the RSA and similar organisations to continue to fly the current flag if they so wish. New Zealand changed its national anthem from ‘God Save the Queen’ on a gradual, optional basis and that process worked,” the policy statement says.

Prime Minister John Key has also already announced a referendum would be held on the flag in the next parliamentary term, saying it was his personal preference to see it changed.”

Andrew Little during the leadership challenge when asked about a /flag change:

#17 by John Parker 9 months ago
Should NZ change its flag:

What’s your personal opinion?

Should there be a referendum?

If you want the flag changed, what’s your favourite design?

by Andrew Little 9 months ago in reply to John Parker
Yes, my personal opinion is we should have something more relevant to an independent, small Asia/Pacific nation. I think a referendum is a suitable way to deal with an issue that can be very polarising. I don’t like the idea of the silver fern on a black background. The elements I would like to see in a flag are the Southern Cross, blue for the sea, green for the land and mountains, and a reference to our Maori heritage.

Kitty Catkin

David

What a waste of money, I hope this like everything else this government does ends in a huge disaster, a non injury one, with endless problems and delays and disappointments and Bernie Monk looses it completely.

Trevors_Elbow

You are not the arbiter of content on this site. You run around and spray people all the time sunshine….. clean yourself up before start the normal leftie bs of anyone who differs in opinion from you is a Nazi….

I think Robert is more than capable of looking after himself Lurch, your interceding is not required…

robertguyton

“The Minister responsible for Pike River, Andrew Little, has announced that there will be a manned re-entry to the mine early next year.

This is a very welcome step and is the culmination of an 8 year battle to get truth and justice for the 29 dead miners.

It’s fitting that it is Andrew Little who has the final say; as the former head of the miners union, the EPMU (now E Tu), Little stood with the bereaved from day one. Unlike former Prime Minister John Key, who lied to the families about re-entry, fought to have union members’ voices shut out of the memorial service, and whose natural instinct was to side with the owners, Little has been a battler for the battlers.”

High Flying Duck

You’re right Gerrit – the wording is very careful, and it seems all these millions are only to enter the drift, where none of the miners are expected to actually be found.
The main workings of the mine remain exponentially harder to access and are off the table at this stage. The likelihood of retrieval of bodies is as remote as ever.
Unless I am missing something – and that is quite possible as I am no expert on mining – this appears to be nothing more than a sop to the families with little likelihood of any actual closure.

adamsmith1922

artcroft

PDB

Yep – only confirmed they are entering the drift which is pretty pointless in terms of finding remains of any of the bodies. Even then Little has said a lot of ‘mights’, ‘maybes’ and ‘coulds’ that give him plenty of outs along the way if things begin to look dicey.

Kitty Catkin

If that was my husband or brother or son, I’d far, far rather that the money went to the living. There are untold causes that could use this money. Imagine St John’s delight if they were offered a few million.

Zedd

PDB

The National govt was not willing to put anybody else’s life at risk in an operation that is most likely to come up with nothing and had international mining experts to back their view.

This govt is prepared to risk people’s lives & break the very H&S regulations created in the aftermath of the disaster for a probably ‘no result’ based on some other expert opinions. Even then they have only confirmed to be entering the mine drift and no further.

I don’t wish to sound insensitive but I do not understand the use of the word “closure” here. I have always believed it to refer to a situation in which a loved one has gone missing and those who loved them have no idea what happened to them. Which is not the case at Pike River.

I fear this is just political point-scoring which is likely, as Gezza noted, to “reopen more old wounds than it will heal”. It may even kill more people. It seems extremely unlikely to retrieve any bodies; and the claim that it might uncover what caused the explosion is a very thin argument given that there seems no question that a dangerous build-up of methane gas, that should never have been allowed to develop, was ignited by something. Some might think that the cause was the explosive gases rather than what ignited them.

robertguyton

lurcher1948

There must be something out there to cheer up the sourpuss righties here,I know our lovely PM Jacinda Adern could announce shes pregnant with a new child,that would/should bring smiles all around or maybe not.